Knight at HOME at the Movies
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Watching the Detectives
All sorts of detectives -- from the first screen incarnation of teen blood hound Nancy Drew to the IMF (Impossible Mission Force).
All sorts of detectives -- from the first screen incarnation of teen blood hound Nancy Drew to the IMF (Impossible Mission Force).
Okay, okay, I know. The IMF a/k/a the Mission Impossible Force were not really
detectives but they were in the espionage field -- not a real stretch from good detectives
-- and I wanted to get this review out there in a timely fashion for once. I've been
anxiously awaiting Paramount's Mission: Impossible The Second TV Season after
having my appetite whetted by the superlative Season One of the show. For the
uninitiated, the TV series, which ran in the latter half of the 60s through the early 70s, is a
far cry from the Tom Cruise blockbuster movies. Unlike those action driven pictures, the
IMF relied on their cunning and their technical and acting skills to complete their hair
raising missions. Season One found the team led by Steven Hill (who went on to real TV
fame in "Law and Order" decades later). In Season Two, agent Jim Phelps (Peter Graves)
stepped up to lead the usual group of agents -- the man of a thousand faces and voices
Rolin Hand, the bewitching Cinnamon Carter, Willie the hunky strongman, and Barney the
electronics expert. Depending upon the mission the team were called to undertake (via
the message that Agent Phelps would listen to in seclusion at the show's opening each
week whereupon it would "self destruct in 10 seconds"), guest stars were brought in to
round out the cast. This new 7-disc set offers 25 episodes that showcase the
inventiveness of the writing, directing and acting -- all hallmarks of this quality series.
These were a weekly "must see" installment in our house growing up and its a pleasure to
have them back in this welcome edition. No extras.
I didn't realize until I saw Tyne Daley and Sharon "Queer as Folk" Gless on "The View"
promoting MGM's Cagney & Lacey - Season 1 that the show had ever been in
trouble. Indeed, that it was yanked off the air and then brought back after an
unprecedented campaign by fans of the show. That didn't surprise me. Even after the
casting replacement of Meg Foster with Sharon Gless as Cagney (apparently because
many read Foster's interpretation of the character as lesbian), the show was whip smart
and tackled issues that one rarely associated with a cop show. The feminist leanings of
the show was very refreshing (and remains so) and the acting of Gless and Tyne Daly was
(and is) a pleasure to watch. These "80s ladies" were proof that the sexpot chick
detectives like Charley's Angels and Angie Dickinson's Police Woman (enjoyable as they
were) were not the only female crime stoppers viewers would root for. This 4-disc set
includes a couple of behind the scenes featurettes along with the episodes which come
BEFORE the show was yanked and returned. Great television before and after, by the way.
Raymond Burr had the good fortune to follow-up his very successful crime drama Perry
Mason with another one. Now Shout! Factory has released the 8-disc Ironside -
Season 1 which contains all 28 episodes of the show's 1967 kick off season and the pilot
that aired the previous year. In both, Burr plays the wheel-chair bound detective in
service to the police whose terseness as he wheels up and down the streets of San
Francisco, aided by his equally tough team, is as hard as the steel in his wheelchair. This
was a character who was not about to let something as simple as a little infirmity get in
the way of his catching the bad guys (the character was crippled at the outset of the pilot).
Ironside began its run just a year after Perry Mason went off the air but though Burr
brought humor and gentleness to his role there, his Ironside is a much harsher character
(and the drawback of the show is it's conservative stance with regard to the hippies and
flower children that the cast are always encountering -- not surprising given the San
Francisco locale). But though a tad creaky, Burr's characterization keeps the series still
watchable.
Just in time for the new feature film, Warner Home Video is releasing all four of the
original Nancy Drew movies that date from the late 1930s. The Original Nancy Drew
Movie Mystery Collection includes the four films -- Nancy Drew Detective, Nancy Drew
Reporter, Nancy Drew Troubleshooter, and Nancy and the Hidden Staircase -- on two discs.
In each, Bonita Granville plays the teenage detective who gets caught up in a series of
mystery cases aided by her ultra feminine friend Bess, Bess' female cousin George
(always described in the books as "mannish"), Nancy's cute but not particularly helpful
boyfriend Ned Nickerson, and sometimes her father, the eminent lawyer Carson Drew.
Only Ned (renamed Ted) and Carson made it to the movie versions, however. Each of the
films runs barely 70 minutes and end not a minute to soon. That's not to say that they're
not fun little entertainments -- the Nancy Drew character is spunky and resourceful, ready
to jump into her roadster and chase the suspect, or scramble out of whatever current jam
she's in. Granville (who had a memorable bit as Bette Davis' niece who taunts poor
Charlotte Vale until she goes over the edge in 1942's Now, Voyager) wasn't far from who I
imagined in the role when I read the books as a young adolescent. These are great little
programmers that hold up well and a nice addition for the collection of classics fans.
detectives but they were in the espionage field -- not a real stretch from good detectives
-- and I wanted to get this review out there in a timely fashion for once. I've been
anxiously awaiting Paramount's Mission: Impossible The Second TV Season after
having my appetite whetted by the superlative Season One of the show. For the
uninitiated, the TV series, which ran in the latter half of the 60s through the early 70s, is a
far cry from the Tom Cruise blockbuster movies. Unlike those action driven pictures, the
IMF relied on their cunning and their technical and acting skills to complete their hair
raising missions. Season One found the team led by Steven Hill (who went on to real TV
fame in "Law and Order" decades later). In Season Two, agent Jim Phelps (Peter Graves)
stepped up to lead the usual group of agents -- the man of a thousand faces and voices
Rolin Hand, the bewitching Cinnamon Carter, Willie the hunky strongman, and Barney the
electronics expert. Depending upon the mission the team were called to undertake (via
the message that Agent Phelps would listen to in seclusion at the show's opening each
week whereupon it would "self destruct in 10 seconds"), guest stars were brought in to
round out the cast. This new 7-disc set offers 25 episodes that showcase the
inventiveness of the writing, directing and acting -- all hallmarks of this quality series.
These were a weekly "must see" installment in our house growing up and its a pleasure to
have them back in this welcome edition. No extras.
I didn't realize until I saw Tyne Daley and Sharon "Queer as Folk" Gless on "The View"
promoting MGM's Cagney & Lacey - Season 1 that the show had ever been in
trouble. Indeed, that it was yanked off the air and then brought back after an
unprecedented campaign by fans of the show. That didn't surprise me. Even after the
casting replacement of Meg Foster with Sharon Gless as Cagney (apparently because
many read Foster's interpretation of the character as lesbian), the show was whip smart
and tackled issues that one rarely associated with a cop show. The feminist leanings of
the show was very refreshing (and remains so) and the acting of Gless and Tyne Daly was
(and is) a pleasure to watch. These "80s ladies" were proof that the sexpot chick
detectives like Charley's Angels and Angie Dickinson's Police Woman (enjoyable as they
were) were not the only female crime stoppers viewers would root for. This 4-disc set
includes a couple of behind the scenes featurettes along with the episodes which come
BEFORE the show was yanked and returned. Great television before and after, by the way.
Raymond Burr had the good fortune to follow-up his very successful crime drama Perry
Mason with another one. Now Shout! Factory has released the 8-disc Ironside -
Season 1 which contains all 28 episodes of the show's 1967 kick off season and the pilot
that aired the previous year. In both, Burr plays the wheel-chair bound detective in
service to the police whose terseness as he wheels up and down the streets of San
Francisco, aided by his equally tough team, is as hard as the steel in his wheelchair. This
was a character who was not about to let something as simple as a little infirmity get in
the way of his catching the bad guys (the character was crippled at the outset of the pilot).
Ironside began its run just a year after Perry Mason went off the air but though Burr
brought humor and gentleness to his role there, his Ironside is a much harsher character
(and the drawback of the show is it's conservative stance with regard to the hippies and
flower children that the cast are always encountering -- not surprising given the San
Francisco locale). But though a tad creaky, Burr's characterization keeps the series still
watchable.
Just in time for the new feature film, Warner Home Video is releasing all four of the
original Nancy Drew movies that date from the late 1930s. The Original Nancy Drew
Movie Mystery Collection includes the four films -- Nancy Drew Detective, Nancy Drew
Reporter, Nancy Drew Troubleshooter, and Nancy and the Hidden Staircase -- on two discs.
In each, Bonita Granville plays the teenage detective who gets caught up in a series of
mystery cases aided by her ultra feminine friend Bess, Bess' female cousin George
(always described in the books as "mannish"), Nancy's cute but not particularly helpful
boyfriend Ned Nickerson, and sometimes her father, the eminent lawyer Carson Drew.
Only Ned (renamed Ted) and Carson made it to the movie versions, however. Each of the
films runs barely 70 minutes and end not a minute to soon. That's not to say that they're
not fun little entertainments -- the Nancy Drew character is spunky and resourceful, ready
to jump into her roadster and chase the suspect, or scramble out of whatever current jam
she's in. Granville (who had a memorable bit as Bette Davis' niece who taunts poor
Charlotte Vale until she goes over the edge in 1942's Now, Voyager) wasn't far from who I
imagined in the role when I read the books as a young adolescent. These are great little
programmers that hold up well and a nice addition for the collection of classics fans.
